Cant save dwg when opened from hyperlink in MS Access

[donald.macleod]

I manage my building drawings using a MS Access database, I have since 2002. I am currently running AutoCAD Architecture 2012. When I search for a drawing in the database, and click on a hyperlink to the file, Architecture opens the file just fine. No read only status in the top bar on the Architecture window. I can work just fine, but when I exit the file, I get no option to save. It just quits. When I open the file again, from the operating system (double click on the file in the folder) it is just as I found it before the attemped editing session.This had worked fine for years.

[Gary_J_Orr]

Can you save the file when by using "save" or "qsave"?
If yes then you may want to look into the "expert" system variable which could be suppressing certain save prompts on exit.

General tip... manually and specifically save, and often, as you work (but that's just my twp cents)

[donald.macleod]

Expert variable is set to ?0?. I don?t think that?s it. If I make a change (delete a line), then do a qsave & then zoom in & out a couple of times, then hit the close window ?X? button it then closes the drawing without giving me an option to save. When I reopen the drawing the line is deleted. Qsave seems to be working. Just nothing after that is being saved. This problem only occurs when I use the database hyperlink to open a drawing.

Donald S. MacLeod
Senior Facilities Designer
Facilities Project Management

[Exelis_logo]

Geospatial Systems
800 Lee Road
P.O. Box 60488
Rochester, NY 14606-0488
585 269 5482
585 269 5495 Fax
donald.macleod@exelisinc.com
www.exelisinc.com

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[Gary_J_Orr]

Pan and Zoom commands are not seen as "drawing Edits" that "require" a save to keep.

I go back to my original statement. Do not rely upon a programmer to decide your fate by relying on what they think you may consider to be important... Just save the drawing before closing it (the best and most reliable method to ensure that how you leave it is how you will come back to it).

-Gary

[MarySeufert]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Pan and Zoom commands are not seen as "drawing Edits" that "require" a save to keep.

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AFAIK, that is not correct. AutoCAD sees pan and zooms as an edit to the drawing.

To the OP; have you tried user forums for MS Access for help? I've never come across this kind of issue on these forums...

A system variable to try out is ISAVEPERCENT, setting it to 0.

[Gary_J_Orr]

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@MarySeufert wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Pan and Zoom commands are not seen as "drawing Edits" that "require" a save to keep.

---

AFAIK, that is not correct. AutoCAD sees pan and zooms as an edit to the drawing.

To the OP; have you tried user forums for MS Access for help? I've never come across this kind of issue on these forums...

A system variable to try out is ISAVEPERCENT, setting it to 0.

---

Sorry Mary but that belief has burnt me more than once.

The DBMOD system variable stores the bit-coded values to indicate weather or not to prompt for save on closing. There are seperate values for:

1 = Database modified

2 = (removed)

4 = Database Variable Modified

8 = Window (size) modified

16 = View Modified

32 = Field Modified

Depending on how you opened a drawing (double-click on a file to open the drawing and AutoCAD, drag a file onto the AutoCAD icon to launch and open, launch AutoCAD then use the "open" command, etc) and how you close the drawing (use the Close command, hit the "x" for the drawing, Hit the "X" for the application, Exit or Quit the application and let that close the drawing, etc) different flags and variables are taken into consideration when exiting...

They have gotten better over the years (ie if dbmod > 0 then prompt to save) but some combinations (to help allow for automation perhaps? I don't know the reason) will ignore the bitflag values of 8 and 16 when checking to see if the drawing has been saved and therefore prompting for save on close...

I've supported literally hundreds of users on a direct one on one basis, gotten to know their habits... I had to to help determine why this failed or that failed or "yesterday this worked but today it doesn't"... And I've learned the hard way...When your livelihood depends on it, Trust in yourself, not the application...

Type "Q" before you close a drawing, and often while you're in it... easiest thing in the world to overcome the possibility of losing work...

So I stand behind both of my statements: Sometimes AutoCAD will ignore pan and zoom operations when determining if a drawing qualifies as having been edited and Manually save the drawing instead of relying on a prompt to remind you to do it.

-Gary

[MarySeufert]

Just for S&G I've opened the same exact drawing in multiple ways, read the value, executed the pan command, and then attempted to close the drawing every different way I know...

Drag to ACAD icon - DBMOD=0; after executing pan command DBMOD=20; result prompts for save.

Quick access bar Open - DBMOD=0; after executing pan command DBMOD=20; result prompts for save.

Selecting from recent opened drawings from app menu - DBMOD=0; after executing pan command DBMOD=20; result prompts for save.

App Menu open - DBMOD=0; after executing pan command DBMOD=20; result prompts for save.

Double picking from windows explorer - DBMOD=0; after executing pan command DBMOD=20; result prompts for save.

Wow all the values are exactly the same! I expected some of the initial values to be different. So I'll also stand behind my statement I was even reading a recently revived thread the other day, were the complaint was that AutoCAD doesn't ignore pans and zooms like a lot of other graphics programs. Maybe back in the day your observation was correct, but I can't verify it in the here and now. By the way 'Q' is an undefined command OOTB (2012).

The OP has a special environment that he is working in which perhaps has some odd things going on. It would be interesting to know what the DBMOD value is when opening from MS Access.

[Gary_J_Orr]

I would hope that the variable is always the same after only zoom and pan commands... it would need to be to be reliable...
You changed the view (16) and the variables associated with defining a view (4) and they should therefore = 20... Me pointing out the different values in the variable was to point out that ACAD has a reason to distinguish between them, otherwise the variable would simply be 0 or 1.

My point is : what the application chooses to do about those variables... on closing the document that was opened... In this case via a hyperlink from his database... Acad may have set flags that told the close command to ignore anything other than actual Database modifications... even more, it seems to be saying to ignore all modifications...

-G

[Gary_J_Orr]

and as to the "type Q" aspect, true, I should have said : set up a shortcut key in your pgp file so you can quickly access the qsave command with a quick and simple keystroke (mine is "Q")... Of course, if you have suggestions turned on qs will be enough to pull it up in the list...

[Gary_J_Orr]

I can replicate this behavior on both ACA and Vanilla Acad (2012 versions, didn't need to go any further and check newer/older versions since my first test confirmed your issue) with Access 2007 even.
Another strange thing that I found is that Access "takes over" Acad in the process... resizes Acad when it launches it to match the size, shape, location of the Access window.
Even if Acad is already open and/or the drawing is already opened it will "take over" and resize the window... which means that it is stepping in and doing more than just using the windows registry file associations to open the file link... it's actually grabbing the application itself (unlike double-clicking on a file in Windows Explorer) and that may be part of your problem.

Have you recently upgraded the ACAD app and/or Access for this to be a "new" behavior for you?

-Gary

[donald.macleod]

Gary,
This has been an issue for some time, but I usually just opened files by double clicking on the file in a folder. I manage the drawings, so I'm very familiar with the folder structure and the file naming conventions. We have some engineers that are now running searches in the database to find the correct file and are clicking the hyperlinks to start up ACAD or ACA. That method used to work just fine when I developed the database. The problem is now involving other people, so I just figured I'd put it out there for a possible solution.
I am seeing all the behaviors you described. MS Access was upgraded to 2010 a couple of years ago, and ACA to 2012 about the same timeframe. I think that's when I saw the problem first occur. I just ran a test this morning and after I have made a few edits, DBMOD was 29. Hit the "X" and no option to save. I have looked on the MSOffice forums, but I don't have any idea what to even search on.

Donald S. MacLeod
Senior Facilities Designer
Facilities Project Management

[Exelis_logo]

Geospatial Systems
800 Lee Road
P.O. Box 60488
Rochester, NY 14606-0488
585 269 5482
585 269 5495 Fax
donald.macleod@exelisinc.com
www.exelisinc.com

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[Gary_J_Orr]

Donald,
There are a couple of possible solutions, all depending on the workflow and the methods being employed for the searches...

If you have designed specific search forms in your Database to pull the records up you could consider writing code behind the form(s) that launches AutoCAD/ACA without the override controls that MS Office is applying for hyperlinks (notice the expansion to MS Office? I have found that the same behavior holds true for hyperlinks in Excel and Word as well) then uses acad methods to open the drawing, or you could build a function within Autocad to perform the same searches against the Database that you have built in to the Access forms, and open the files from there. Both of these scenarios would mean changing the hyperlinks to a simple string that contains the path and filename (although, I guess that you could simply have the new functions parse the hyperlink strings to extract the filepath...).

But, if your Engineers are designing their own queries "on the fly"... well, that gets a bit tougher... that would require building an "add-on" function to Access to create a "button" (or some variation thereof) that would perform similar actions.

-Gary

[Victoria.Studley]

Hi Donald,

Does the issue still occur if you launch the program first, and then select the hyperlink to open the drawing?

What if you manually save the drawing, instead of clicking the X and waiting for the prompt to ask you if you'd like to save?

[donald.macleod]

Issue occurs when I open AutoCAD Architecture by hitting the hyperlink or hitting the hyperlink while AutoCAD Architecture is open. I can manually do a save prior to closing and it will save. My problem is when our Engineers close the application using the ?X? and expect a prompt to save.

Donald S. MacLeod
Senior Facilities Designer
Facilities Project Management

[Exelis_logo]

Geospatial Systems
800 Lee Road
P.O. Box 60488
Rochester, NY 14606-0488
585 269 5482
585 269 5495 Fax
donald.macleod@exelisinc.com
www.exelisinc.com

[Follow Exelis][Exelis Facebook link][Exelis Twitter link][Exelis YouTube link][Exelis Facebook careers link][Exelis Linkedin link]


________________________________

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it may be proprietary and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this e-mail in error please notify the sender. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this e-mail are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Exelis Inc. The recipient should check this e-mail and any attachments for the presence of viruses. Exelis Inc. accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this e-mail.

[Gary_J_Orr]

Just by way of a follow-up...
I was messing around with accessing running instances of ACAD using Window's WbemScripting interface and, for the heck of it, I launched a session of ACAD from a link in Excel...
MS Access, excel, and Word (as created for my other tests on this) and found that when launching Acad from such a link MS supplies an additional parameter to the command line: "-Embedding".

Because Acad is launched with this flag set ACAD skips any prompts on exit (I assume to allow for silent exit for COM apps???). My assumption is that this flag was intended for use with an app that makes it's own decisions as to save/not save and the like, but the MS apps that set it, set it then forget it without the embedded controls that are assumed with such a flag.

-Gary